young and cruising

[Frank]

I always enjoy the people you meet while out. Always more fun to see young people making choices to live "differently". A steel ketch sailed in to Green Turtle Cay last night. The young Dutch couple had just come none stop from the Exumas (170+knm) They've been out over a year, had a cute baby boy along the way (6mths old now) and all looked very happy and healthy. Great to see.  It was kinda sad seeing them leave in the morning. I enjoyed their stories and enthusiasm.

Update: I ran into them again at Manjack. They had a broken boom and as things go....a large ketch had gone aground up a few islands during "Sandy" and was scuttled....but the boom was a perfect fit!! Simply needed about 6in removed.

[Tim]

And what is great about the Internet is that many of them are blogging so one can "run into them" easier.

[Kettlewell]

When we were younger and had young children we went on some longer cruises. My son was in the Bahamas when he was still crawling, and my daughter had her 2-year birthday on the beach at Stocking Island. Then from 2005-2007 we took them, ages 9 and 12, to the southwest Caribbean and back. There were some bad moments, but it was mostly great fun with kids onboard. Wish we were out there now, all together, looking forward to the next anchorage.

[Captain Smollett]

I have met quite a few folks (in person and online) that have said their parents took them cruising when they were young.

I've yet to meet one that says it was a negative experience or had one single regret about not having a "normal" childhood.

Every single one has, on the hand, gotten that gleam in the eye when they bring those memories to the front. 

My parents did not take me "cruising" when I was little, but growing up for the very early years in Miami, most of my earliest memories involve being on a boat, fishing for Dolphin in the Stream, being on the beach, being on some (to me, at that age) secluded, isolated sandy island.

Some people say that the second happiest day in a man's life is the day he sells his boat.  For a young boy of 4 or so, my Dad selling his boat was a traumatic experience from which I've never recovered.  It might help explain my current addiction - we own 5 boats and I would buy more if my wife would let me.

Yes sir, there's something about "the sea" (even if it's an inland lake!) that grabs ya; taking little ones cruising is a blessing they will feel for a lifetime.  Of that I have no doubt.

[CharlieJ]

Some of my best memories from cruising, and living aboard, are from when my teenaged son was along. He and I brought the boat from Jax, Fl to Galveston. Including a passage across a part of the Gulf of Mexico. He's 45 now and still reminds me of things from back then.

One of my favorite stories-

We were bring the tri in to a dock, and he was handling lines. I called to him to drop a line on a particular cleat and snub it. He calls back "you got it"

Bystander on the dock was watching and asked-" do you always do exactly what he says like that?"

Kid answers- "On the boat yes. On the boat, he's the captain. On shore, he's just Dad"
;)